This is a translation of parts of the summary of The 24th CNNIC Report – Statistical Survey Report on Internet Development in China. For more information, check back here soon. I’ll also probably post a translated version of the full report within a month.
The number of Chinese netizens has increased to over 300 million as of June 2009. On July 16, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) published the “24th Statistical Survey Report on Internet Development in China.” As of June 30, 2009, the number of Chinese netizens, number of broadband users and country-level TLDs were all greater than any other countries’. Internet usage continued to steadily expand. With the help of the development of 3G networks, the number of mobile users reached 155 million, making up 46% of the total netizens. That is an increase of 32.1% over half a year.
Report Overview:
Number of Chinese netizens = 338 million. That is a 25.5% penetration rate and 40 million more users than there was at the end of 2008. This is a 13.4% increase in the number of netizens over 6 months.
Number of broadband netizens = 320 million. That is 94.3% of the total netizens. Although broadband internet usage is high, the broadband connection speed still lags far behind developed nations.
Number of mobile netizens = 155 million. That is 45.9% of total netizens, and 37 million more than at the end of 2008. Of mobile netizens, 28% say that they hope to be using a 3G phone to access the internet within half a year. Of netizens that are not accessing the internet via a cell phone, 7.25% say that they hope to be using a 3G phone to access the internet within half a year.
Number of rural netizens = 96 million.
The rate of growth of China’s internet infrastructure has slowed. The growth of IP addresses, international outlet bandwidth, and the number of websites is clearly lower than in 2008.
82.4% of China’s netizens installed some sort of security software on the computer that they use most. However, China’s network security situation still isn’t rosy. Within half a year, 195 million netizens’ computers were attacked by a virus or Trojan horse and 110 million netizens had problems with their account or password information being stolen.
Usage was relatively high for online entertainment, information gathering and communication type applications. Besides forums, these three online applications were used by over 50% of netizens. Online shopping, online payment and other business-type applications were used relatively less.
Usage of information gathering applications increased. Usage of search engines and online news reached 69.4% and 78.7% respectively.